“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

As you’ll find out when you ask me over for dinner sometime—which I’m hoping you certainly would consider because on a good night I can be a pretty darn entertaining dinner guest and just might clear the dishes from the table if I’m feeling generous—and you ask me to bring a little something sweet to our potluck dinner—say for instance an Irish celebration that is happening this coming weekend—my dessert of choice usually veers from the frilly and delicate sweet treat variety to something a bit more sturdy and craveable. Macarons? Not. so. much. It will be a long, long time before I try my hand at making a macaron. I’m afraid I don’t have the patience or the skill to pull them off.

Basically, macarons scare me.

No, I’m definitely more of a hearty dessert type of gal, baking up something a bit more forgiving and a tad more freeform. Chocolate Stout Brownies in all of their fudgey glory are right up my dessert alley.

So are you staring at your computer right now thinking to yourself, “What the, whhhhaaat? Why would someone waste a perfectly good beer to ruin brownies, or any other recipe by dumping it into a recipe?”

Oh honey. Hold your horses and let the heads of your brews settle down. I have a selection of 20 great recipe reasons to add beer to your favorite recipes. But first we need to get to the bottom of these brownies.

Whenever I make chocolate brownies I find myself adding that little something extra to deepen the flavor and enhance the taste of the brownies. Most of my brownie making escapades involves the addition of instant espresso powder and kosher salt to add to the chocolateness. This time it’s the stout that does the trick. You won’t taste the beer taste at all, it’s merely a richness that enhances my love of chocolateness.

I prefer my brownies dark and somewhat of the fudge-like arena of taste. I don’t really care for them with frosting or too cakey, like, you know, the ones you see in the grocery store with a thick layer of lard frosting and decorated to fit the theme of the month in little plastic containers? If I wanted frosting and cake I’d eat cake. Am I right or am I right?

I also like my brownies with a focus on the chocolate instead of the sugar. I crave an afternoon treat—or maybe even breakfast bite—with a more dedicated taste of deep chocolate, one that perfectly balances a great latte, so I like to use bittersweet chocolate in my brownie recipes but will certainly entertain a semisweet as well.

For this recipe I kept the sugar at just one cup, but if you make these and feel they don’t give you the sugar fix you were looking for, feel free to give them another try with another half cup of sugar added to the mix.

A few brownie making tips:

1. While I didn’t use the flavored Chocolate Stout in this recipe, if you feel so inclined to add yet another delicious layer to your brownie, by all means, DO IT! A chocolate glaze (no, not frosting) on the crunchy top wouldn’t be half bad either. Give it a whirl, let me know what you think.

2. I took a tip in baking these from my Wisconsin cheese tour last year where I learned from a local chef a terrific secret to baking moist and delicious brownies. “Go low and slow,” he said. 250 degrees. That’s all you need. And that’s all I do now. And they come out perfectly crackled on the top and moist on the inside.

3. Patience. Brownies require patience. Not for cooking or preparing. No, patience to keep you from eating straight out of the pan or cutting and devouring too soon. Brownies are best eaten the second day after they’ve had some time to settle in and get ready for the ride, so plan ahead and bake them, let them cool and then put away your salivatory glands until the next day or you’ll end up with an ooey, gooey mess. These babies need standing time.

Bring stout to a boil and reduce to simmer and cook for about 10 minutes or until reduced to ¼ cup. Set aside to cool.

In a double boiler or a small bowl atop a small saucepan filled with 1 inch of water, melt chocolate chips and butter over high heat, stirring occasionally, until melted.

Pour melted chocolate into a medium bowl and cool slightly. Add sugar, vanilla, salt and stout and mix well with a whisk or wooden spoon. Add eggs one at a time, mixing just until combined before adding the next egg.

Fold flour into mixture and pour into baking pan. Bake for one hour or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool in pan for 2 hours or overnight to firm up for best cutting. Dust with powdered sugar if desired.

If these recipes find you just tipping the top of the cooking with beer iceberg, definitely head over to see what Ali at Gimme Some Oven is cooking up during Guinness Week and Jackie has a plethora of beer induced recipes at The Beeroness.

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What an awesome roundup! I just cheated on my longtime brownie recipe for the first time over the weekend and it was my post Monday. As long as I’m cheating, I need to make your brownies now! They look so rich and fudgy!

Oh, I couldn’t agree more…brownies are all about the chocolate for me, too! No frosting on mine, thank you, and less sugar. I recently made a brownie recipe from a 1957 advertising booklet for cake flour. They were the best ever, but you had to wait until the next day for them to reach their peak. Just like you said

Thanks bunches for including my Beef and Stout Pie. And happy St. Patrick’s Day to you!

I just recently won a “growler” of chocolate stout at a Curling Tournament and can’t drink that much before it goes bad. Thank you so much for the awesome looking recipes using stout. I plan to try several (including the brownies)!

We made Beer Cupcakes for my husband’s birthday party last year – beer and bow ties was the theme. The cupcakes were a great success! Maybe I will try the brownies this weekend – my in-laws will be in town and with a last name Doyle, I should be making these.

We have been invited to friends this Sunday for St. Patricks Day and this will be the perfect thing to bring to the party! I love the crackly tops and gooey center type brownies. I am like you, leave the frosting for the cake please! Thanks for the great recipe round up, the scallop recipe looks fantastic too!

Now this is such a great roundup, but those brownies are really just mouthwatering, crazy good. I think the stout would make a great addition to brownies, really need to try that! Hope everything is well!

These look so delicious! As well as all the other recipes you have shared! YUM Thanks for the tips…and I agree about brownies. I don’t like them too cakey because like you said I will just have cake if that is the case And no frosting!! My recent post was titled “Cake Please. Hold the Frosting.” I think we are one the same page